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Thai Grilled-beef Salad with Grapes

This recipe was given to me by chef Norbert Kostner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Bangkok when I visited the cookery school there. It's lovely served as a first course or included in a cold-buffet menu.

Method

First you need to grill the beef in advance, and for medium-rare give it 2-3 minutes on each side. Be careful not to overcook the steak: it needs to be quite pink, as the lime juice in the dressing 'cooks' the beef a bit further.

If you'd prefer to use a ridged grill pan, pre-heat it for 10 minutes, then cook the steak for 1½-2 minutes on each side. Once the beef is grilled, allow it to rest for 10 minutes before slicing it into thin strips.

Meanwhile, to make the dressing, blend the chillies, garlic, ginger and sprigs of coriander and mint in a processor until finely chopped, then add the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar and whiz again to blend everything.

Lovely spicy flavours here: just fry the prawns with onions and garlic, tomatoes, lime, wine and Thai red curry paste, cook the finest of pasta, then combine it all for a really wonderful and easy supper dish.

This dark, pungent curry paste makes a delightful alternative to dry, ground spices. I have included it in the recipes for Angel-hair Pasta with Thai Spiced Prawns and Thai Fish Cakes with Cucumber Dipping Sauce

In Thailand, they use pomelo in salads, which is very similar to grapefruit. I have used pink grapefruit here, but when they're not available, you could ring the changes and use a thinly sliced, medium-sized mango.

Using ready-cooked chicken speeds up this already easy dish, making it a real winner for weekday supper. Coconut milk can be heavy in calories, so dieters may like to know that you can now buy half-fat coconut milk instead.

You won't believe how utterly simple and easy this is, and yet it tastes exotic and wonderful and, what's more, it can all be prepared well in advance and the fish added about 10 minutes before you want to eat it.

The ingredients list for these noble little Thai-inspired fishcakes looks very long but the good thing is they can be made and cooked with incredible speed. Serve them as a first or main course, or as canapés with drinks.

This, thankfully, is a Thai recipe that doesn't require all the speciality ingredients that are sometimes so elusive. The list of ingredients seems rather long, but it is made in moments and has a lovely fragrant flavour.